By BERNIE HORNICK
JOHNSTOWN — Unemployment ended 2009 on a sour note, with Cambria County posting its 10th monthly increase with the release of December’s numbers.
The Cambria rate increased from 9.1 percent to 9.4 month over the previous month. Unemployment stood at 7.5 percent in December 2008.
Somerset’s jobless figure rose 0.6 of a percentage point from November, to 9.9 percent.
Lauren Nimal, a workforce analyst with the state Department of Labor and Industry, wasn’t overly concerned with the rise. Cambria had logged the biggest unemployment skid in three years the month before, with unemployment dropping from 9.7 to 9.1 percent.
“Jobs were going up in September, October, November,” she said from Harrisburg. “All three months we saw some increase, with some job loss in December.”
Nimal said nothing particularly appeared out of line last month, though retail was flat after adding 200 positions in November in non-seasonally adjusted figures.
Often, the Cambria retail industry adds another 100 jobs during December.
Local government jobs fell from 6,300 in November to 6,200 in December.
All supersectors lost jobs during 2009.
The largest losses were in manufacturing; professional and business services; and trade, transportation and utilities. Each of the three sectors has lost 400 jobs since December 2008.
